Thrifts Suffer Record Losses

The nation’s federally insured savings and loan institutions lost $3.2 billion in the last three months of 1987, pushing the industry’s losses for the year to a post-Depression record of $6.8 billion, the government said today. Losses were heavily concentrated in the Southwest, suffering from declines in the energy industry.

The S&Ls;, composed of 3,147 thrift institutions, had earned $132 million a year earlier. The 1987 loss was nearly 50% greater than the previous record of $4.6 billion, set in 1981, when the prime lending rate soared above 20%.